May 1, 2005    The Official Newsletter of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers    www.nm4w.org

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President Leon Duggar counted down the seconds and opened the meeting, held at Heights Cumberland Church at precisely 7 pm MDT.

Members Present: The following family units were represented by at least one member; Abbate, Bontly, Brady (Pat & Sue), Capener (Rich), Cline, Coe, Crowley, Duggar, Greven, Gjerning, Juarez, Markham, Marx, Meier, Miller (Bobby & Susan), Miller (Don), Norton, Ohnesorg, O’Niell, Peeples, Rector, Tanner, Telepak, Thompson, Trappett, Werkmeister (Mark), Whiston (Frank G. & Beth), Wolf, and Woodard.  If I didn’t list you & you were there; you didn’t sign in.

Guests: Phil & Ilene Rodacy, Eric Capener, Larry Koblinski, Justin Simenson, Mark & Maria Berglund & family, Kenneth & Debbie Stanley, Bill Adelmann, and Joe Donnelly.

The unflagging Mr. Wolf made a motion to have the minutes of the last meeting read, but the required majority could not be found anywhere.

After prompting from President Leon, our beloved Sheriff and VP, Jeff explained the point system the NM4Wheelers utilize for assessing membership potential.  This was mainly for the tutoring of the attending guests.  There were no fines of any consequence.

The Treasurer, Susan Miller reported the bank balance as $1,046.55.

The Historian, Rich announced he had a club photo album available for perusal by members and guests.  Photos from the Chili Challenge were featured.

Trip Chairman, Jason Lavy honored the assembled masses with his appearance.  Asked how his Grand Cherokee was doing, Jason admitted it had “flopped over”.  He will be allowed to retain possession of the cowbell.  Jason stated he was thinking of a Moab trip around May 13-15.  Contact him if interested.

Jason reported there had been a couple successful work parties held for the Auge Boys 4x4-101 event.  The club trip to Gordy’s Hill, the day after Auge’s, was discussed. This is to be known as the “Orientation Tour”.  The work party at Gordy’s Hill has been moved to May 14–15.  Other New Mexico clubs have been invited to participate.

Bob Telepak is planning a Behind the Reef trip for Fall.  See the members trip list.

Contact Marcia Duggar if you are interested in the Hole in the Rock trip.

The clubs annual assault on Mt. Blanca is planned for the weekend after Labor Day Weekend.  Contact Mark Werkmeister.

Chuck Peeples had special news about the upcoming weekend Auge Boys 4x4-101.  The course for this year is supposed to be superb, with a very challenging obstacle.  The local Belen Boy Scouts will be grilling hot dogs.  Displays of equipment and speakers on the proper care and feeding of your 4x4 are featured.  Chuck had a sample of the Auge Boys promotional mailer.  Sanitation facilities will be available; however, it was not determined for certain whether or not the Porta-Bronco would be making an appearance.

Bob Telepak spoke for Bob Norton, Director of Environmental Affairs.  He reported that the Price Utah BLM office is leading the pack when it comes to restrictive off-highway vehicles practices.  The club-sponsored adopt-a-trail, the Behind the Reef trail, may be in danger of closure.  USA-ALL (Utah Shared Access Alliance) does a credible job at helping to preserve access.  Their website may be found at www.usa-all.com or their new (work in progress site) at www.usaall.org.

Program Chairman Jerry Marx announced he has a new supply of club shirts, hats, and things.  The evenings raffle included Tom Woods hats, flashlights, and stickers, as well as the usual splitting of the pot with the grand winner.

Secretary Don Miller recorded the meeting.

Old Business: There was a brief discussion regarding the 4WD Hardware club offer/incentive/payback plan.  As there was no motion in favor of the club signing up, the matter became roadkill.

New Business: The summer pot luck socials begin next month.  The volunteer hosts are as follows:     

            May: Keith & Connie Chapin
            June: Bobby & Susan Miller
            July: Leon & Marcia Duggar
            August: Chuck & Ethyl May Peeples
            September: Carlos & Laurye Tanner

Jeff led us in inducting Mark & Maria Berglund and family into the club.  Justin Simenson was also voted in as a full member.

Leon thanked the Wolfs for sponsoring the fine goodies served after the meeting.  Leon adjourned the meeting at 7:57 pm.

I first heard of the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument quite a while ago, but it wasn’t until about a month ago that I thought of taking the hour and a half drive up there.  The day was March 13^th, a Sunday morning.  I woke up and watched the news, “chance of showers in the afternoon” was the forecast; I had taken the hard top off of my Rubicon the day before, for the summer, so I decided that with a chance of showers I should put on my soft top.  Before I continue, I should say to all who don’t know this, this is my first Jeep and I have only had it about 6 months.  I got together all of the soft top parts and laid them out in my garage.  As I looked at the mounts that attach to the roll bar, I realized I had forgotten what they looked like before I took them off, so instead of being bull headed and just making things fit, I decided to actually follow the instructions that came with the Jeep.  After a quick glance, I was sure I knew what to do.  The easy part was attaching the mounts and then attaching the soft top to the mounts; after that, the actual fun began.  Being my first time to put on a soft top, as well as the first time for the new soft top to be installed, made the whole ordeal interesting.  My fiancé, Nina, was “helping” by reading the instructions, one step ahead of what I was actually doing.  While I tried to stretch the top out and latch the front clips to the windshield, I decided to pull my Rubicon out into the sun to warm up the material.  I told myself to give it about 5 minutes to get warm, but I was getting inpatient with it and kept on working.  My stubbornness paid off because I was able to attach the front latches.  I then moved to the back corners.  This is where I learned that the little plastic strip at the bottom of the soft top, the piece that goes under the lip, is a tight fit.  After attaching that, the side windows were easy.  That’s when Nina informed me that I was supposed to take that plastic strip out partially for the back window...  Is that just a funny little Jeep joke?  To have the newbie struggle to put that little plastic strip in, then tell him a couple minutes later to take it out?  After all that, I did get the soft top on, and I will think twice before taking it off again.

With our lunch in the cooler and the soft top on and secure, we left Rio Rancho.  The drive to the Cochiti exit was surprisingly shorter than I remembered.  From there, we headed toward Cochiti Lake.  Just past the spillway, there is a sign that points south to Cochiti Pueblo and the Tent Rocks.

In the Pueblo is another well-placed sign that points you back east.  The pavement ends and a graded road takes you to the trailhead and parking area.  I had read that the road was really bad, but I found it exceptional for a gravel road.  There is a $5.00 fee, but at the trailhead, there are a handful of well-spaced shelters, with concrete picnic tables along with bathrooms.  The drive to the trailhead was about an hour and a half from Rio Rancho, which included stopping for gas.  I talked with the forest ranger and he told me to head up the road about 3.5 miles to the overlook.  I took his advice and headed up there.  The road is less maintained past the trailhead, but is still good.  About a mile or so from the trailhead, the road crosses a stream.  The ranger said that it hadn’t run water in twenty years or so.  The overlook is at the top of a hill and looks over the national monument.

When we got back down to the trailhead, people were packing the parking lot.  There are two different trails to hike, the Loop and the Slot Canyon.  The Slot Canyon trail is an off-shoot from the Loop trail.  We decided to hike up the loop, which was about a mile long.  We found the trail well marked and the views spectacular. 

There is a cave in the side of the rock face about six feet above the path, halfway along the loop trail.  When I climbed inside, I found it to be 6 foot high by 10 feet deep by 15 feet wide.  It had a little “window” and the opening framed the back of the Sandias perfectly.  When we came to the Slot Canyon, we decided to check it out, and it paid off.  The path got narrow in a few places, but the rock formations in there were amazing.  We went only part of the way up when we decided to turn around and head back.  As soon as we got back to the Jeep, the rain started.  The hike was perfect for picture taking, and even though the parking lot was packed, we only passed a handful of people on the trails.  The level of hiking is about a “2”, on a scale between 1 and 5.  The rock formations are easy to see and are all over the place in the area.

All in all, the day was perfect.  I learned how to put my soft top on, took some pictures, and we received more moisture.  Little did I know that the day after I put my soft top on, I would be driving in 6 to 8 inches of snow!

If you want more information on The Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, visit their website at:

www.nm.blm.gov/recreation/albuquerque/kasha_katuwe.htm

I get really annoyed every time the TV or print news media does another scary sounding story exclaiming that gasoline prices have hit an all time high.  It seems that very few of the reporting agencies have any basic understanding of economics.  We all know that virtually everything rises in price/cost over a period of time.  We know that effect as inflation.  The rate of inflation is reflected in the CPI; the Consumer Price Index.

I'm old enough to remember 35 cent a gallon gasoline.  Wouldn't we all like that.  But to be fair and accurate, the rise in the CPI (inflation) must be taken into account.  That 1969 35 cent gallon of gas actually cost $1.77 in today’s dollars.  The real, adjusted for inflation, all time high for gas in the USA occurred in 1980-81.  In today’s dollars, that price works out to about $2.80 per gallon.  That's the national average price; there are regional variances.  Comparing today’s gas prices to those from the early 80's it is also interesting to note that the inflation-adjusted taxes on gasoline is now 43 cents per gallon, while back in 1981 it was 29 cents a gallon (once again the figures are a national average).

If you really want to complain about something, how about this.  The price of beer, adjusted for inflation, has increased 27% more than gasoline since 1982!

I already had the suspension components arriving via UPS and local shops, when I decided to purchase the high pinion Dana 44 front axle assembly.  With the J-arms, I would have to remove the housings to grind off the factory brackets anyway, so that was a good time to do the gears and locker.  Early one Friday morning, I set the rear of the Jeep on jack stands and began to remove the axle.  Chet Markham came over to help out.  It was nice to have some additional muscle to move that thing around.  After a lot of grinding and pounding, I had the factory control arm and track bar mounts removed.  There is no turning back now, as all of these brackets were mangled beyond recognition before I was done.  Soon after, I removed the necessary brackets from the replacement front axle as well.

I had detailed instructions on how to install the truss for the triangulated upper arms, because this was one of the few components that actually came as a kit.  That is where I started. 

I tack welded it on for a trial fit just in case.  While I had the axle back under the Jeep, I took the opportunity for a trial fit on the lower control arms.  I then tack welded the brackets for the lower control arms and bolted them up so that I could cycle the suspension to see if there were any issues.  It all looked good, so I welded them on permanently.

At this point the 4.88 gears and Detroit Electrac lockers had come in, so I decided to switch to this task.  I had done this chore on my truck years ago and helped a few friends along the way, so I figured it shouldn’t be too hard.  Even after buying special tools to make the job easier, it was still a bear to get the gears set up.  You must get bearing preload, backlash, and pinion depth to spec within a few thousandths of an inch for it to work properly.  This took many iterations and I had to assemble and disassemble many times.  I was glad to have my dad (Frank R.) there to help.  The Detroit Eectrac did not add any difficulty to this part of the assembly; all of the unique stuff comes into play when installing the differential cover.  I was very relieved to have this chore done on both axles.

Now I decided to assemble the rear axle, so that I could move the jack stands up to the front.  This is exciting; I can begin to see what the end result is going to look like.  Now I can move on to removing the front axle.  Once the original one was out, I put the Dana 44 under the Jeep, attached by the upper control arms, and began to look at how to attach the j-arms.  I used some wood that I had laying around to mock up the brackets that I would need to make.  After many measurements, I decided that I had it right and had a friend make some metal brackets for me to weld on.  The axle then came back out, so that I could remove the factory track bar bracket from the frame.  More grinding and pounding was required.  Man, the factory meant for this thing to stay there! 

Once it was off, I bolted the Dana 44 up again, including the new adjustable track bar, to locate the new frame bracket.  Then I welded the new bracket in place.  At this point, I could cut the track bar to length and weld the eye for the Johnny Joint to the end.  Finally, I assembled the front axle and the Jeep is supporting its own weight again.  Stay tuned for the install of the Klune-V and slip yolk eliminator.

This excerpt is from the Salt Lake Tribune of April 22.  A Bill number has not yet been assigned.  As some lands in previous wilderness bills are now being considered separately, the actual amount of lands that SUWA wants off-limits is 10% greater.  As a stand-alone bill, it is unlikely that it would make it through this Congress.  Of course, there is always the threat of burying such legislation within another bill.  I will let you know if we need to raise the alarm at some time in the future.

Bob Norton, Dir. Of Environmental Affairs

Excerpt:

The Red Rock Wilderness Act is back before Congress - this time with a bigger list of backers.  Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y. and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Thursday reintroduced legislation that calls for 9.5 million acres of pristine canyon country in southern Utah to be preserved, prohibiting activities such as mining, gas and oil exploration and off-highway vehicle use.

Hinchey and Durbin's legislation, this time trotted out with 151 co-sponsors - including 13 members of the Senate, is the latest version of a bill that then-Utah Democratic Rep. Wayne Owens introduced in 1989.

The Red Rock Wilderness Act's 9.5 million-acre footprint is based on surveys done by volunteers with the Utah Wilderness Coalition, which claims that the Bureau of Land Management ignored vast tracts of wilderness-quality lands in its original 3.2 million-acre inventory.

"It is absolutely imperative that we safeguard these 9.5 million acres of beautiful, pristine open space in Utah and keep them in their natural state in perpetuity," Hinchey said in a statement.  "So much of our nation's open space has been developed upon, which is why it is so important that we preserve the precious few acres of wilderness we have."

Scott Groene, Executive Director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, called the reintroduction of the Red Rock Wilderness Act a small, but significant step forward.  "Sure, the reality is that it is difficult to move this legislation in this Congress," said Groene.  "But we have made steady progress in terms of increasing the amount of ground that has some form of protection administratively and legally, at the same time we're building support for the legislation.  "This is the payoff of a grass-roots campaign that has built credibility and has support across the country as well as Utah," he added.

The New Mexico 4 Wheelers made their first visit to the Gordy’s Hill OHV Area as a club on the weekend of April 16-17.  The purpose of the trip was to introduce the club to the varied four wheeling opportunities within the area.  Gordy’s Hill is located just northeast of Socorro, NM.  The proposed boundaries of the OHV area encompass around 6,000 acres of rolling hills, twisting arroyos, scenic vistas, and rocky canyons.  We had a total of 21 vehicles on the Sunday run, including four trucks from the New Mexico Tech Off Road Club.  About half of the club members came down after the Auge’s 4x4 101 event on Saturday afternoon, with the rest joining us on Sunday morning.  Those that came down on Saturday afternoon participated in a potluck dinner.  We had an uninvited guest for the potluck, about four hours of rain!  (Don’t say that I didn’t warn you at the meeting the Thursday before!).  Luckily, the Brady’s camper is equipped with awnings that were just large enough to cover most of us.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear and we arranged ourselves into a line just before 9:00 am.  During the driver’s meeting, Mark introduced Mike Bilbo, Outdoor Recreation Planner – Socorro Office BLM, and briefly described the area.  We mounted up and headed up Arroyo de la Parida for the day’s first and most challenging trail section.  The Lower Waterfall rock crawling area has a bypass, but about half of the attending vehicles managed to find their way into and through the water carved rocks of the play area. 

We managed to initiate at least one brand new Rubicon to the joys and perils of rock crawling as it collected its first undercarriage scratches and offered up a few bumper tips as tribute to the challenging rocks. 

We continued up the canyon, climbed up and out of the arroyo, dropped down to cross Coyote Canyon, and stopped for lunch at Ojo de Amado.  Some checked out the virgin rocks upstream of the spring, while others toured the small ruin located there.  After lunch, the club was “treated” to the joys of The Causeway, a steep drop into Amado Canyon.  The looks on some of the faces indicated that they through it was a little bit more than a moderate trail, but the traction was excellent and everyone made it down into the canyon.  Most of the attendees hiked down Amado Canyon a short way to check out the more extreme terrain in the lower canyon.  We called it a day and headed back to camp to pack up before getting hit with another afternoon thunderstorm.

I want to thank everyone who attended this “orientation” tour and remind everyone of the work party scheduled at Gordy’s Hill on the weekend of May 14-15.

It was a good day.  There were three Landcruiser FZJ80's: Evan Ashcraft, David O'Niell, and me; and Matt Soden in his 1st gen ('87) 4Runner.  We went up to the north portion of the area first (planning on briefly checking it out and then going south), and followed an old trail from what appeared to be the northern boundary ridge road "WSMR Route 18" down to the arroyo bed ("1" on the map, http://tinyurl.com/63dv6).  The native material is good for climbing when aired down.  We followed the small arroyo down to its confluence with the main arroyo, where we ran into David-I-forget-his-last-name, that has the light blue bobbed locked Tacoma with 37’s, but he was on an ATV instead, having previously obligated himself that day to go out with his dad, brother-in-law, and a couple of others.  They headed upstream in the main arroyo.  We started downstream, and just before we headed up a trail to the south out of the arroyo, David-with-the-Tacoma-on-the-ATV caught back up with us, and told us there were some rock obstacles upstream.  We turned around and headed for them ("2" on the map, http://tinyurl.com/3lctq).  There were a variety of potential obstacles, up to hard.  Kind of a small area though.  Matt was going to try the direct through-the-arroyo obstacle, but we talked him out of it, as a retrieval could have been difficult with just the wagons.  We took the bypass, with David in the lead - around another obstacle that Matt took, and up the arroyo until we intercepted an exit to the south.  We climbed out into what I believe was the race course (http://dchieftain.com/sports/44636-09-22-04.html), which we followed to the south, winding around and up and down through ~ 2000 whoop-de-doos, until we hit the main road (Mark Werkmeister told me the southern area would be better - but now we know what's up north there anyway).  Just before the main road, we ran into some mountain bikers who confirmed that the best 4x4 rock crawling etc. place was to the southeast.  So, when we hit the main road, we took a left into the hills.  We were then transiting on the Quebradas backcountry byway: www.nm.blm.gov/recreation/socorro/quebradas_byway.htm

We followed an interesting load – a guy hauling short telephone pole sections.  When he turned off ("3" on the map, http://tinyurl.com/5b7u6), I stopped and wanted to find out what he knew about the area, since a guy hauling shortened telephone poles up there must know what he was doing (?!).  After about a minute, I knew this guy had way more information than I could ingest, so I called the other guys up to talk with him as well and soak up info.  Turns out the guy has an ‘81 Toyota pickup rock crawler he's putting a dozer blade on to make more 12' roads out there on land they bought.  It was none other than Carlos LoPopolo, New Mexico historian and jefe of the Conquistador DNA horse project, www.nmhp.org.  There are many interesting aspects of their project.  Should be a good website to peruse.

Anyway, he told us (like I said, much more than I can relate) about some rock crawling area around there, which sound fairly numerous.  After helping him unload his telephone poles, we turned around and went back--it was getting cloudy and we had things happening in Alb.

Some good areas will be within 3 or 4 miles of "3".  Looks very promising.

The club annual election of officers is scheduled to be held at the July meeting.  Officer positions of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers include: President, Vice-President, Program Chairman, Trip Chairman, Director of Environmental Affairs, Secretary, Treasurer, Historian, and SWFWDA Delegate.  Any voting member in good standing may be nominated and elected.  You can volunteer (self-nominate) yourself.  A nominee must be present to accept the nomination, or have filed a letter (e-mail okay) of intent with the secretary.

Just in case you are willing to take on one of the prestigious (read that as unpaid) officer positions, but aren't sure just what you might have to do, the descriptions of each position are listed on the club web site at www.nm4w.org/SOPs.htm.

Aluminum Cans: Our club saves and recycles aluminum cans.  Money from the sale of cans goes into our club treasury.  Please bring your crushed aluminum cans to each meeting, and somebody will take them to the recycling center.

To Our Guests: If you attend a club meeting or event and provide us with your e-mail address, you will be added to our guest e-mail list, and will receive monthly notifications of when the Trail Tales newsletter is posted on our Club web site.  If you are interested in becoming a member of the New Mexico 4-Wheelers, please contact one of our officers for membership requirements, or visit our web site at www.nm4w.org/join-the-club.htm.

Trail Tales on the Web Site: In a continuing effort help save natural resources and to control costs, you are encouraged to read the Trail Tales newsletter on the Club Web Site in lieu of receiving a hard copy in the mail.  Around the first of each month, the current issue of Trail Tales is posted at www.nm4w.org/newsletters.htm and an e-mail notification is sent to all club members.  In addition, a minimum of 2 years of back issues of our newsletter is also available on the web site.  So if you want to help “save some trees”, please send an e-mail to trail-tales@nm4w.org stating that you do not need to receive the hard copy of the newsletter.  Thanks for your participation in this program.

Submission Due Date: The Trail Tales is published on the first of each month.  Submissions for each issue must be received by the Editor not later than the 25^th of the prior month.  Submissions can be sent to trail-tales@nm4w.org, or Trail Tales, 21 Rattlesnake Ridge, Tijeras, NM 87059.

Please see the Events Schedule Page

Trail Tales
21 Rattlesnake Ridge
Tijeras, NM 87059-7440

trail-tales@nm4w.org